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[Editor's note: this is the third installment of GEO founding-member Len Krimerman's new memoir. You can read the preface and introduction here, and chapter one here. Look for chapter three next Monday.]

[Editor's note: Below is the preface and introduction to GEO founding member Len Krimerman's new memoir, Coming Alive in Dangerous Times (1961-1983). We will be publishing Len's memoir serially, every Monday, over the next month, starting with Chapter 1, A New York Yankee in Louisiana,next week . Here, Len discusses how he came to write a memoir, the value of memiorizing our life stories, and lays out the plan of the book. GEO will be releasing Coming Alive as an ebook this fall.]

[Editor's note: In this presentation from the 2015 Eastern Conference for Workplace Democracy, Brian Mueller of Madison, Wisconsin's Isthmus Engineering Co-op discusses the basics of project management—what it is, phases and tools for project management, why projects fail and what makes them succeed—as well the unique considerations for project management within the context of a worker cooperative.

The spinoff model is an effective tool for worker cooperative development. By allowing owners with more appetite for risk to start new ventures, while taking advantage of already existing infrastructure and resources from the existing co-op, the spinoff model greatly reduces the costs and logistical considerations involved in creating a new worker co-op. Additionally, the mother and daughter co-ops can then work together, providing business and sharing expenses together, which allows for expansion of the movement without undue administrative overhead. Keywords: worker co-ops, development, spinoff

More people are choosing the cooperative model to express their entrepreneurial spirit in the Northwest. The success of a co-op depends on many people and their efforts. Keywords: resident-owned communities, manufactured homes, worker coops

Many people, including those in the labor and worker co-op movements, think that unions and co-ops are singularly mismatched. Logic has it that worker co-ops don’t need to be unionized since workers own and manage their businesses, and that workers in labor unions just naturally aren’t entrepreneurial but rather are used to resisting “the boss.” In addition, people may be familiar with large agricultural co-ops in the Midwest that fight with unionized workers, or with food co-ops that resist worker unionization.

Since 2011, we’ve been steadily growing the Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance. We’ve been developing as an organization, establishing programs and services, and building connections among cooperatives and credit unions. In this article, I will discuss our evolution and speak to our successes and challenges with an eye towards helping other cooperative alliances in their own formation.

Uber and other so-called sharing economy companies are nothing more than fronts for wealthy capitalists to make money by exploiting workers and avoiding regulations. Worker-owned cooperatives like Madison, WI's Union Cab offer a better alternative that protects workers and customers and helps build wealth within communities.